Question about PayPal "Buy Now" buttons …

Hiya,

I’d be really grateful if you could please let me know the answer to the following question …

Suppose my website has a current Level 2 member who purchased their membership using a Level 2 PayPal “Buy Now” button (e.g. 1 year access, non-recurring, no trial), and who has 1 month remaining of their Level 2 membership.

Now, if the above member is logged onto the website and purchases another membership using the same Level 2 PayPal “Buy Now” button, then (so long as the appropriate option is chosen in the settings) the additional 1 year period will be added onto the end of their current remaining 1 month period (i.e. they will then have 13 months remaining of Level 2 membership).

However, what happens if the above member is logged onto the website and instead purchases another membership using a Level 1 PayPal “Buy Now” button? Will they keep their remaining 1 month of Level 2 membership and then be switched to a Level 1 membership for the subsequent 1 year? Or will they be immediately switched to a Level 1 membership? If the latter, would the additional 1 year period be added onto the end of their current remaining 1 month period (i.e. they would lose the 1 month of Level 2 membership, but get 13 months of Level 1 membership) or would they just get 1 year of Level 1 membership from the date of payment?

For info, I know that changes between Levels are supposed to be dealt with by Modification buttons, but I don’t use them, so I’m interested to know what would happen if only using “Buy Now” buttons.

Thanks,
Steve

However, what happens if the above member is logged onto the website and instead purchases another membership using a Level 1 PayPal “Buy Now” button? Will they keep their remaining 1 month of Level 2 membership and then be switched to a Level 1 membership for the subsequent 1 year? Or will they be immediately switched to a Level 1 membership? If the latter, would the additional 1 year period be added onto the end of their current remaining 1 month period (i.e. they would lose the 1 month of Level 2 membership, but get 13 months of Level 1 membership) or would they just get 1 year of Level 1 membership from the date of payment?

A User that uses a Modification Form (which is the only form a logged-in User should be able to use correctly) is immediately changed to the level that the Modification form they used is set up with.

A User cannot use a Buy-Now form to add time to their membership/change their membership level.

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for your very quick reply.

A User cannot use a Buy-Now form to add time to their membership/change their membership level.

That’s strange, because that’s exactly how the members on my website have always extended their membership.

For info, my website only has Level 1 membership PayPay “Buy Now” buttons – it doesn’t have any modification buttons. Although there are several different buttons, this is because each button corresponds to a different period of time at a different rate, rather than corresponding to a different level of membership.

So far, if a new member (i.e. someone who’s not logged onto the website) clicks on the Level 1 button then they are given the time offered by that button. If an existing member (i.e. someone who’s logged onto the website) clicks on the Level 1 button, then the time offered by that button is added onto the end of their remaining membership period.

I realise that the correct way to extend memberships is via modification buttons, rather than via “Buy Now” buttons, but I’ve always used the latter and would be reluctant to change this unless there was a good reason to do so. Do you know if there’s any potential disadvantage to using Buy Now buttons to extend memberships?

Thanks very much,
Steve

I realise that the correct way to extend memberships is via modification buttons, rather than via “Buy Now” buttons, but I’ve always used the latter and would be reluctant to change this unless there was a good reason to do so. Do you know if there’s any potential disadvantage to using Buy Now buttons to extend memberships?

s2Member defaults Pro Forms to allow for this to work, for the sole purpose of keeping Users from having problems.

From the docs
(Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Shortcode Attributes (Explained)):

modify=”0″ Modification directive. Only valid w/ Membership Level Access. Possible values: 0 = allows Customers to modify their current Subscription or sign up for a new one, 1 = allows Customers to only modify their current Subscription. When modify=”1″, s2Member will force a Customer to be logged-in before they can fill out the Form (very handy). This is slightly different than PayPal® “Button” Codes; there is no “2” option for “Forms”; only 0 & 1 are valid values.

The modify attribute defaults to 0, so using regular Buy Now forms to have Users re-up their subscription works. There’s no disadvantage here, but the “correct” way to accomplish this would be to use Billing Modification Forms.

Hi Bruce,

Thanks very much for your reply.

Just to check – I’m using “Buy Now” buttons, rather than “Buy Now” forms (this is because when I purchased the upgrade to s2Member Pro I decided to retain my existing set-up, rather than switch to Pro Forms). Looking at the settings, it appears that the “modify” codes for the buttons are slightly different to the “modify” codes for the forms – i.e. code “1” for the former appears to be the same as code “0” for the latter. As you’ve said that code “0” is the default for forms, I’m assuming that code “1” is the default for buttons. I’m also assuming that, just as you’ve said for forms, whilst modification is the “correct” way of doing things, it’s still an option for me to continue using the “Buy Now” buttons to allow members to extend their membership, rather than having to use modification buttons.

If any of the above assumptions are wrong, please let me know.

Thanks,
Steve

Thanks for the follow-up.

The Buy Now Buttons will work equally well as the Buy Now Pro Forms. Sorry for the confusion. :-)